He looked beaten, bleeding heavily from the nose and his left eye swollen shut.
But Vinny Pazienza wasn't about to let anyone get in his way of claiming the obscure World Boxing Union super middleweight title, including Dana Rosenblatt and referee Tony Orlando.Pazienza stunned Rosenblatt and stopped him in the fourth-round of their scheduled 12-round fight that began at midnight Friday at Convention Hall.
After knocking down Rosenblatt with a thunderous overhand right, Pazienza waited patiently for the Malden, Mass., left-hander to get up, then drilled him with five punches in a row, backing him into a corner, where Orlando stopped the fight at 2:13.
But the 33-year-old Pazienza wasn't finished. He kept punching, knocking Orlando down before state boxing commissioner Larry Hazzard rushed into the ring to stop him.
"I started slow because of the late start. After the first couple of rounds, I told (trainer) Kevin Rooney, I'm going to knock this kid out," Pazienza said Saturday morning.
Pazienza said he didn't mean to turn Orlando into an opponent.
"I wanted to knock everyone out," Pazienza said. "Tony just got in the way. I love Tony."
Rosenblatt (28-1, 21 KOs) dominated the fight from the start, knocking Pazienza down in the first round and bloodying his nose and battering his left eye until it was swollen shut in the second.
So, Rosenblatt, 24, was as shocked as everyone else by the sudden ending, including a crowd of 5,586 at Convention Hall and a pay-per-view audience.